Dick Lewis, who retired from UC Davis in 1979 but remained a fixture on campus throughout his retirement, died in late September in his Davis home, and the world stopped, if only temporarily, for generations of UC Davis athletes, coaches and fans.

To count his many friends and those who revered him from near and far, you’d think maybe Dick was an All-American quarterback, university chancellor or the town mayor. He was none of those things. He was simply Dick Lewis.

And yet, among honors too numerous to list, he was named grand marshal of the Picnic Day parade, a member of the Cal Aggie Athletic Hall of Fame and Most Valuable Player on the 1969 Far Western Conference championship Aggie basketball team—the first MVP ever who never scored a single point. The athletic training room in Hickey Gym was named for Lewis in 1997.

When you talk to players from that electrifying 1969 basketball team that regularly packed Hickey Gym—folks like Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordy Baranco and school administrator Bob Johnson—you learn Dick’s selection as MVP was not a lark and had nothing to do with charisma or being a good guy.

No, they selected Dick—unanimously—because he was the glue that held the team together. He set an ethical tone of hard work, teamwork, sportsmanship, walking the extra mile and always doing the right thing. It was a moral tone, to be sure, but Dick was no moralist. He was simply Dick Lewis.

Aggie coach Bob Hamilton said at the time that his players “really thought that nobody on that team was more valuable than Dick.”

While Dick’s quiet fame came from his very public role in front of thousands at Toomey Field, Hickey Gym and later Rec Hall, he ministered to far more than football and basketball players during those long days in the training room and on the playing field. He didn’t care if you played a high-profile sport like football or led the solitary existence of a long-distance runner. It didn’t matter if you were varsity or junior varsity, starter or reserve. There was no rank to be pulled in his training room.

Said legendary Aggie football coach Jim Sochor, “Dick had the ability as athletic trainer to put his hands on a player for a few minutes, and all of a sudden they felt a lot better. Dick was a psychologist as much as he was an athletic trainer.”

As Dick explained many times to many athletes, he was just there to help you get where you were going.

At the memorial service on a warm Sunday afternoon, Sochor told the large gathering, “Dick was the walking, living symbol of Aggie pride. When you came into his training room, he commanded respect and dignity.”

Sochor noted that it was almost 36 years to the day, Oct. 6, 1967, when Lewis played a major hand in saving two lives during an Aggie–Chico State football game on Toomey Field.

“Two people went down with serious cardiac problems. One was a defensive back for us, Jerry Attaway, the other a referee, Jack Maugers. It was amazing work that saved those two lives and Dick was a big part of that.”

Dick always told people he was the happiest man on earth. He’d talk about his wife, Betty, and his daughters and his grandkids and the coaches and athletes and all the many, many acquaintances and experiences he’d had at UC Davis. “Nobody’s had a better life,” he’d say. “I found the perfect spot at the perfect time.”

So I’m sure there’s some high-fiving going on these days up there in Aggie heaven, where the preferred colors are blue and gold and Dick can swap stories with such legendary members of the Aggie family as George Belenis, Tom Cooper, Bob Hamilton, Vern Hickey, George Stromgren, Woody Wilson, Joe Carlson, Steve Reid, Emil Mrak, Warren Mooney, Laureene Hunt and Crip Toomey himself.

Dick Lewis left every person he met better off for the experience. The campus and society in general were blessed to have had him for so many long and wondrous years.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that Dick died during a bye week in the Aggie football season. It was the only time he could go and be confident his services wouldn’t be needed on the field of play.

Bob Dunning ’68, J.D. ’73 is a daily columnist for the Davis Enterprise. He can be reached at dunning@davisenterprise.net.